WSJ Sings Praises of Huntsman Economic Plan

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman may be at the back of the pack in the hunt of the Republican presidential nomination but the economic plan he unveiled this week should get him some well-deserved attention, The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.

The editorial praises the plan for creating three personal income tax rates of 8, 14 and 23 percent and paying for it by eliminating all deductions and credits.

“That means economically inefficient tax carve outs for mortgage interest, municipal bonds, child credits and green energy subsidies would at last be closed,” the Journal wrote. “The double tax on capital gains and dividends would be expunged as would the Alternative Minimum Tax. The corporate tax rate falls to 25 percent from 35 percent, and American businesses would be taxed on a territorial system to encourage firms to return capital parked in overseas operations.”

The plan also calls for the repeal of Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, and the “Bush-era regulatory mistake, the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting rules, which have added millions of dollars of costs to businesses with little positive effect.” “Mr. Huntsman says he'd also bring to heel the hyper-regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug Administration and the National Labor Relations Board, all of which are suppressing job-creation,” the Journal noted.

“Mr. Huntsman's proposal is as impressive as any to date in the GOP Presidential field, and certainly better than what we've seen from the front-runners,” the Journal concluded. “Perhaps Mr. Huntsman should be asked to give the Republican response to the President's jobs speech next week. The two views of what makes an economy grow could not be more different.”

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman may be at the back of the pack in the hunt of the Republican presidential nomination but the economic plan he unveiled this week should get him some well-deserved attention, The Wall Street Journal said in an editorial.
The editorial praises...